Rem Koolhaas's Countryside, The Future at Guggenheim New York

On February 19, 2020, Rem Koolhaas presented the exhibition Countryside, The Future at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the city. After a six-month closure, the museum reopened on October 3 with the same show. The exhibition, curated by Troy Conrad Therrien with Koolhaas and Samir Bantal of AMO, explores the 98% of the earth's surface that is not urban. It features a thematic layout across six levels of the museum's spiral ramp, including a tractor at the entrance, farm animals on the rotunda floor, and sections on political redesign, experiments in repopulation, preservation, and a final section titled Cartesian Euphoria? The show includes images, texts, films, archival materials, maps, objects, and robots. Koolhaas argues that rural areas are undergoing radical transformations often overlooked by architects and politicians focused on cities. The exhibition, conceived before the pandemic, now appears prescient as the crisis has blurred urban-rural boundaries. However, the review criticizes the show for being overwhelming and lacking a human element, ignoring the cultural identity of rural communities. The exhibition runs until February 15, 2021.